Bon Iver followed the highly acclaimed For Emma, Forever Ago with the self-titled sophomore effort that is undoubtedly the best album of 2011.

As the annual best album of the year comes soaring into our lives over the next two months, Bon Iver stands held and shoulders above the rest and not for the first time.

Ever since the enigmatically beautiful For Emma, Forever Ago, we wondered whether Justin Vernon could release anything as breathtaking, the answer is a resounding yes.

This year has seen emerging talents WU LYF, The Vaccines, Anna Calvi and Benjamin Francis Leftwich release outstanding debuts, as well as five star releases from Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Elbow and Radiohead.

The Return of Kasabian with Velociraptor! Is already a front-runner for 2012 Mercury Music Prize and T…

At the start of every year a selection of acts are tipped as breakthrough artists but as history has shown us few will go on to realise their initial potential. As the current crop prepare to release debut albums or are busy creating interest around their already released debuts, the five acts most likely to succeed are James Blake, Jamie Woon, Liam Bailey, Clare Maguire and Funeral Party. In an industry that is forever searching for the next big thing, each artist has built a particular fan base through music listens, video views, web exposure and social media attention and are recognised as being the new sound of a generation, whilst maintaining a certain uniqueness. Each artist has created their own sound and drawn on influences within the music industry and from their own backgro…

Fascinated by the trendy obsession with the retro photograph, as reified in the bursting tills of Lomography. I bet my bottom dollar there are more downloads of the Hipstamatic app per square East London mile than elsewhere in the country.

Why are we so into the Polaroid, or the nostalgia-tinged colour effects of the 70s? My Italian Memories photo is a great example. I Photoshopped and Photoshopped until I reached the satisfactory effect which resulted in someone saying ‘Oh… that’s really you? I thought it was your mum because of the colours.’

I think it’s because the Polaroid quality or indeed the faded colours of my photo infuse even the most banal subject and composition with wistfulness and aura, which Walter Benjamin defined as ‘a strange tissue of space and time: the unique ap…